Born in Texas, Thomas Haden Church, employed his distinctive voice as a radio deejay and a voice-over announcer before moving to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.
Maybe best known for his roles in the TV series “Wings” and the film “Sideways", Church went on to acclaimed performances as Sandman in “Spider-Man 3” and Tom Harte in “Broken Trail.”
He has a much smaller part as a high school English teacher in the quirky new comedy, “Easy A,” which also features Stanley Tucci, Patricia Clarkson and Lisa Kudrow.
The movie stars Emma Stone as a whip-smart good girl who decides to use the high school’s gossip mill and the brave new world of social media to change her social and financial status.
Recently, Church called from the Toronto Film Festival to talk about “Easy A” and his acting career.
Q: How did you get involved with “Easy A”?
A: I knew the director, Will Gluck, from way back in the day. We played street basketball together in L.A. They originally wanted me to look at another character but I just thought the teacher was a little more what I wanted to do.
Q: Your role is rather concise but pivotal. What made you want to play Mr. Griffith?
A: I just thought it would be really fun. I almost did “Juno” and that sort of became the benchmark for a clever high school script. I really thought the “Easy A” script was as good or maybe better. It's a key character. Even if it’s only five scenes, the character has a story.
Q: How do you approach a role when you have less screen time to define the character?
A: It doesn’t matter to me. If I’m in a movie for five minutes or starring for 105 minutes, it’s just about how important the character is to the story and how it works with the narrative. The teacher is a mentor, but then he’s caught up in this scandalous thing that reveals the hypocrisy around the school and that completes the story.
Q: “Easy A” is unabashedly an homage to the films of John Hughes, but a bit edgier and R-rated. Do you think that just fits with the times we live in?
A: Those movies, like “The Breakfast Club,” are pretty dated, now. But the spirit is intact. And the spirit of that storytelling is what I think informs a lot of filmmaking. You can sort of see it in Judd Apatow’s movies and you can see it in Will Gluck’s movies.
Q: No matter the generation, high school is a perennial source of comedy and drama and bad dreams, it seems.
A: I’m going to do a movie with Cameron Crowe. “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” came out when I was in college. I was a surfer in South Texas and it was sort of our language. Sean Penn’s character was cartoonish but it was genius.
Q: Do you ever get sick of being asked about “Sideways”?
A: Not at all. It was a great experience for me. It was a real mid-career revitalization and everything that’s come since is due to that in some ways. I’m back at the Toronto Film Festival for the first time since “Sideways” six years ago. That film is an enduring fan favorite and a defining performance for me. It’s a damn good one to have. Before that it was sort of “George of the Jungle” or Lowell from “Wings.”
Q: You’ve done a lot of work since “Sideways.” What are some of the roles you’re most proud of?
A: Sandman in “Spider-Man 3” and Tom Harte in “Broken Trail” were significant. “Smart People,” this movie that came out a few years ago, I thought was sort of overlooked. I really liked my character and my story with Ellen Page.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: It’s called “The Reasonable Bunch,” and it’s a comedy written and directed by Barry Levinson’s son, Sam Levinson. I play Demi Moore’s husband, and it has Kate Bosworth and Ellen Barkin. It’s a real dysfunctional family kind of a movie. Sam is only 25, but he’s a really good writer and is proving to be quite a good young director.
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